Journey to the Centre of the Earth: 3D

Rating – **

This isn’t strictly speaking, a legitimate film, more of an extended 3D theme park ride. There’s nothing wrong with that, I love that sort of thing….when I’m at Disneyland. There’s no point seeing this in a regular cinema, it was shot in 3D and that’s the only way to see it. You’ll get poked in the eye by yo-yos, bug antenna, mouthwash, and Brendan Fraser’s finger. The live action scenes often look stunning, probably the best 3D yet. The problems occur in the fast moving CG-heavy shots. The forced perspective and strobing glitches can make your eyes buzz. Forgetting the 3D, the film isn’t bad. I’d feel like a bully writing it off totally. The film’s only goal is to entertain children and make them smile. They probably won’t realise that everything has been done before. The mine cars are shamelessly lifted from Temple of Doom. There’s literally nothing different in the scene, but somehow it’s nowhere near as good! The T-rex has the same problem, this sure isn’t Jurassic Park! It’s shocking that 15 years later, digital dinosaurs don’t look as good as they used to. Everything in this film is entertaining while it lasts, then instantly forgettable. Brendan Fraser is the same as ever (God bless him) and Anita Briem may be the most visually compelling aspect of the film ……sorry digital matte painters.